FilmIndia (1939)

And This Is Hollywood! By KHWAJA AHMED ABBAS. (Exclusive For "filmindia".). (Mr. K. A. Abbas the well known critic of the "Bombay Chronicle" has just returned from a world tour, during which he visited Hollywood with an extra interest as a film critic. In this interesting contribution Mr. Abbas tears off the veil of illusion and gives a petp into the real Hollywood:— The Editor.). Hollywood: The very name spells glamour and romance to millions of film fans all over the world. Imagination, aided and abetted by the photogravure sections in fan magazines, has endowed the movie capital with every conceivable quality of beauty and perfection. We think of it as a magical city populated by Beauty Queens and dashing He-men, bevies of beautiful belles in elegant costumes walking about the streets displaying their physical charms In abbreviated bathing costumes on picturesque sea beaches or in marble swimming pools. In short, an all pervading atmosphere of beauty, romance and luxury. The Persian couplet inscribed in the Moghul fort of Delhi might as well have been a post-dated tribute to Hollywood. "If there be heaven on the face of earth, It is this, it is this, it is this." Fed on such attractive illusions, naturally there is in each one of us a keen desire to see Hollywood for ourselves. It was, therefore, not without a certain amount of excitement that I stepped out of the train at Los Angeles. (I knew, of course, that there is no railway station by the name of Hollywood). Another train had also come in just then and I noticed a small group of reporters, photographers and publicity men surrounding a little curly-haired girl —Shirley Temple. Outside the station a few passengers and porters collected out of curiosity to look at the child -star who was quickly driven away in a high powered limousine. In the after noon papers Shirley Temple's arrival after a holiday was blazoned on front pages. The small group at the platform was now exaggerated into a "huge crowd of fans and admirers". Hollywood, thy name is publicity. Soon I was to find how clever publicity men have conspired to create the world-wide illusion about Hollywood. The film colony is but a very small part of the far-stretched city of Los Angeles (about the size of Bombay) many among whose population are no more concerned with movie-making than the average resident ot Bombay. Not even two per cent of the population is engaged in film work and there are far more churches than studios, more real estate agents than actors. Even in the quarter which may be called Hollywood (once it was an independent town but to-day it is an undefined suburb of Los Angeles) it is difficult to find much of the glamorous atmosphere that is as Film fame is short-Uved. Clara Bow the 'it' girl, once the darling of the screen, to-day runs the 'it' cafe. sociated with the movie capital. It Is a beautiful enough town— not unlike other towns on the West coast of America — with a prosperous business quarter on the Hollywood Boulevard, and long rows of bungalows with gardens. There is nothing to distinguish the Mr. K. A. Abbas. residences of film stars and yc would never know which is Clai Gable's house unless you went c a "conducted tour of film star houses" along with a charabar full of screen struck females, is typical of the Hollywood and lj fictitious, illusive atmosphere th;j I found no cocoanut trees in tij famous "Cocoanut Grove" and tl] Beverley Hills are no hills at a Most of the studios as well as m houses of the stars are not ]{ Hollywood but spread out far ar.j wide, removed from one anothc by as many as fifteen or twenM miles. Hollywood has no longer geographical connotation. It not a town but a tradition, ar we hear so much about Hollywoc because that tradition has a con' mercial value. THE "STARS" ARE HUMAN Before visiting the studios I ■ cided to have a general look ;h Hollywood, to breathe in the a mosphere which was expected be so alluring but turned out be so disillusioning. I cannot, course, vouch-safe for what got on inside the homes of the sta I but outwardly they strike one I ordinary human beings. It human enough that some of the! do crazy things and indulge 40